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The Avid Reader Show

Samuel Hankin

The Avid Reader is a podcast for book lovers. Tune in for interviews, recommendations, and insider news from Sam Hankin, host and owner of independent bookstore Wellington Square Bookshop - www.wellingtonsquarebooks.com

20 episodes
Avg 59 min
English

Episodes 20

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S2025 · E788
June 24 · 1 hr 9 min
Episode 788: Keza MacDonald - Super Nintendo: The Game-Changing Company That Unlocked the Power of Play
An exuberant, behind-the-scenes look at the designers and the company that brought us Mario, Zeld...
S2025 · E787
April 30 · 53 min
Episode 787: Ancient Algorithms - Katrine ØGaard Jensen
In Ancient Algorithms, Katrine gaard Jensen mistranslates, rewrites, and remixes her award-winnin...
S2025 · E786
April 29 · 1 hr 16 min
Episode 786: Elegy in Blue - Mark Helprin
Told in an exceptional literary voice, mixing comedy and tragedy, Elegy in Blue is a hymn to New ...
S2025 · E785
April 29 · 55 min
Episode 785: Marcus Hall - Our Bodies, Our Planet: A Parasite's History of Us
In praise of parasites, a surprising exploration of the profound impact of biological freeloaders...
S2025 · E784
April 29 · 49 min
Episode 784: Andreas Marks - Japan's Manga Revolution: From Painted Scrolls to Comic Books 1680-1920
Manga didn’t begin in the 20th century — it emerged from a rich, inventive world of illustrated b...
S2025 · E783
Nov 5, 2025 · 49 min
Episode 783: Eric Rath - Kanpai: The History of Sake
Lift a glass to the story of sake—from Japanese homebrew to global phenomenon. Sake, Japan’s...
S2025 · E782
Nov 5, 2025 · 52 min
Episode 782: Steve Ramirez - How to Change a Memory: One Neuroscientist's Quest To Alter The Past
A disarmingly personal account of the new science of memory manipulation by one of today's leadin...
S2025 · E781
Oct 2, 2025 · 55 min
Episode 781: William O. Stephens - Marcus Aurelius: Philosopher-King
The moving life and legacy of Rome’s great emperor philosopher.  This book guides us th...
S2025 · E780
Sep 29, 2025 · 1 hr 7 min
Episode 780: James Barrat - The Intelligence Explosion: When AI Beats Humans At Everything
With the rapid rise of generative artificial intelligence, both existential fears and uncritical ...
S2025 · E779
Sep 24, 2025 · 1 hr 13 min
Episode 779: Michaela Vieser & Isaac Yuen - The Sound Atlas: A Guide to Strange Sounds across Landscapes and Imagination
Mapping the acoustic onto the human soul, moving meditations on the power and meaning of sound.&n...
S2025 · E778
Sep 23, 2025 · 1 hr 3 min
Episode 778: Mary Roach - Replaceable You: Adventures In Human Anatomy
From the New York Times best-selling author of Stiff and Fuzz, a rollicking exploration of the qu...
S2025 · E777
Sep 23, 2025 · 54 min
Episode 777: Svend Brinkmann - The Experience Society: Life Beyoned Subjectivity
An enlightening look at how our elevation of the sensorial and the subjective has impaired our ab...
S2025 · E776
Mar 17, 2025 · 45 min
Episode 776: Einstein in Oxford - Andrew Robinson
An intimate account of Albert Einstein’s visit to Oxford in the 1930’s, casting new light on why ...
S2025 · E775
Mar 17, 2025 · 1 hr 2 min
Episode 775: Hidden in the Heavens - Jason Steffen
Are we alone in the universe? It’s a fundamental question for Earth-dwelling humankind. Are there...
S2023 · E774
Feb 18, 2025 · 1 hr
Episode 774: Ciara Greene and Gillian Murphy - Memory Lane: The Perfectly Imperfect Ways We Remember
We tend to think of our memories as impressions of the past that remain fully intact, preserved s...
S2023 · E773
Feb 18, 2025 · 1 hr
Episode 773: David Bates - An Artificial History of Natural Intelligence
A new history of human intelligence that argues that humans know themselves by knowing their mach...
S2023 · E772
Feb 18, 2025 · 54 min
Episode 772: Gareth Gore - Opus
A thrilling exposé recounting how members of Opus Dei—a secretive, ultra-conservative Catholic se...
S2023 · E771
Nov 26, 2024 · 55 min
Episode 771: Jonathan Silvertown - Selfish Genes to Social Beings: : A Cooperative History of Life
For all the "selfishness" of genes, they team up to survive. Is the history of life in fact a sto...
S2023 · E770
Nov 25, 2024 · 1 hr
Episode 770: Elizabeth Winder - Parachute Women: The Women Behind The Rolling Stones
Parachute Women: Marianne Faithfull, Marsha Hunt, Bianca Jagger, Anita Pallenberg, and the Women ...
S2023 · E769
Nov 22, 2024 · 1 hr 6 min
Episode 769: Jim Baggott - Quantum Drama: From the Bohr-Einstein Debate to the Riddle of Entanglement
The definitive account of the great Bohr-Einstein debate and its continuing legacyIn 1927, Niels ...

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